Title: A.G. Stephens: Australian Critic, Traveler and Nationalist, Circa 1900
Abstract: This essay introduces the life, work and overseas travels of Alfred George (A G) Stephens (1865-1933), Australia’s most influential fin-de-siecle literary critic and journalist. Some might reasonably argue that he was the most significant literary critic in Australian history, mounting his attacks and defenses from his famous “Red Page” in Sydney’s popular Bulletin. Those columns made and destroyed literary careers around the turn of the twentieth century and later. His other published works included introductions to Australian literature, edited volumes of verse, both his and those of other writers, and a travelogue, entitled A Queenslander’s Travel-Notes, published upon his return from overseas in 1894. Taken together, his writings address some fundamental questions asked by Australians and others circa 1900: what constitutes a national literature? to what degrees is that literature influenced by race, a sense of place, and interaction with other people and their literature? what did the Australians and their literature share with other Commonwealth societies, such as Canada, and with the United States?
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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